When Windows starts, we see the desktop, making us think we can do something, when, in fact, all the "cagata" in the startup folder is still loading. Can you give me a green light to say "startup is finished now; get on with it!"Of course, a display with a "gas gage/speedometer" indicator would be nice too.dk

From believing in Santa to not believing in Santa, from being Santa to looking like Santa, I will never be younger than I am today!

Nope - here is just fine..I was just suggesting that one of the readers of this post might decide this is a good project to use for their NANY app.

This is one of those clever little useful ideas that is fun enough to code that it will get coded pretty soon.. now you just wait

There are other things that could be added to this:For example when windows first starts up, the file system directories don't appear to be cached, so the first time you open start menu or browse program files is slow.. might be fun to add an option that would sort of pre-scan common directories in order to bring them into the cache, etc. In other words just do some things ahead of time to make it so that when the program finally reported that your newly booted pc is "ready for action", it was all primed and fast.

Kinda' like some of the ideas behind your FARR, right? Perhaps there is a way to have a persistent list of 'oft used programs, to "pre-cache" them...It is so KEWEL to see someone grab something & run with it...(all I wanted was a little traffic light in the tray.) dk

From believing in Santa to not believing in Santa, from being Santa to looking like Santa, I will never be younger than I am today!

there are multiple sources for run-at-start apps: HKLM run entries, HKCU run entries, services, per-user start menu startup folder, and iirc some ini files somewhere as well. Also, when are those "started"? Once the exe is run, or after they're actually done reading from disk, initializing, etc?

brotherS: I wouldn't call that "optimizing", since it's symptomatic treatment... not saying it doesn't give a perceived improvement though, but it does mean it takes even longer before windows is fully booted

Would certainly work some places - but I've seen computers where some service (sometimes) take a while to load, postponing the rest of the system. It's hard coding up something that works reliably everywhere

My own solution is to not boot more than necessary, and go fetch a cup of coffee - system's usually ready and kicking when I get back

Here i am on a family trip- pecking away on my Palm Pilot- hiding in the kitchen - following this thread... thanks guys-it could have been a boring day! BTW the coffee trip is my usual routine but I just knew you guys were NOT the 'if it aint broke don't fix it' bunch, / it is fun to watch you work.

From believing in Santa to not believing in Santa, from being Santa to looking like Santa, I will never be younger than I am today!

Skrommel,This does not seem to work on my development machine, It flashes a box for a fraction of a second, then disappears. The icon is in the tray & I can open the options code.(WinXP SP2, dual AMD Opteron 64, RAM 4 Gig, HDs accumulate to near a TerraByte)

Another network machine is being re built, I am just now getting SP2 for it, has single AMD Single core. I will try it on that machine in the morning.dk

From believing in Santa to not believing in Santa, from being Santa to looking like Santa, I will never be younger than I am today!

A little off-topic...when I reboot my computer (when did I do that last again?) I time it with my watch- if my computers aren't up and running in a VERY tight time period, I go insane (and take an hour or so to optimize every spec I can).I do this in various ways with some basic tools (and some common sense), here are my startup times if anyone wants to know:

So by the time I press the power button on either computer and sit down the computer is ready to work or play full-on.(Now downloading Skrommel's new app (IdleRun) to see if that gives me a way for my computers to ding at me so I stop timing )-Wreckedcarzz

I have used it on three macnines for several days now & it works just fine. I have fiddled around with the "settings" file. I changed the parameters & changed the message to "do something!" just for fun. This little app does exactly what I had in mind.dk

From believing in Santa to not believing in Santa, from being Santa to looking like Santa, I will never be younger than I am today!

Hello, Skrommel,Just downloaded "Idle Run". It installed easily in the tray and showed -(minus) 97%. I clicked on settings,,, I am not into programming and cannot set anything. I came back 5 minutes later, and the tray icon was not there anymore but the space for it existed and showed -92%. Reinstalling the .exe did not bring back the tray icon. I have a dual processor (AMD 64x2 dual core 4600+). ??? I would love a negative CP usage. Is this what you referred to as possible problems with dual core processors?jr

for a moment, i thought you were being sarcastic.. AHK script contains instructions that translates into action when it is executed. for portability, the script is compiled into an exe. that's why, if you noticed, there are two download images at Skrommel's page - one for ahk script, the other for the exe..